Congratulations on completing your film, Stephen and welcome as a full D-Word Member too – feel free to explore the place. You may also wish to re-post your request for interns (perhaps with some more details) in the Public Classifieds Topic

Iâ€™ve just joined the D-Word, thanks to John Burgan for the connection. It seems like a terrific space/collective resource. I hope to make a useful contribution. Here are some headlines re my background.
These days I work at the intersection of documentary and participatory media. I was co-founder and producer of BBC2â€™s award winning Video Nation project, for which people across the UK recorded everyday life in the 90s, which we edited, with their approval, into over twenty hours of diverse TV output. I was Executive Producer of the BBC Capture Wales digital storytelling project, the first major initiative of its kind in the UK, which was informed by the work of The Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, and resulted in a wealth of autobiographical stories made in workshops around Wales, and contributed to a continuing.digital storytelling culture here.
I still live in South Wales though Iâ€™m now a Research Fellow at the Digital Cultures Research Centre, at the University of the West of England in Bristol. My research explores the emergence of collaborative online documentary. Iâ€™m interested in how a collaborative approach and the online network might enhance documentaryâ€™s role in the public sphere.
I blog at http://collabdocs.wordpress.com/In the 90s I was a producer/director of documentary and arts TV. My work pursued themes of culture and identity â€“ in Hilda at Darjeeling for Channel Four British women looked back on their role in India under the Raj, in Meeting the Masai Mob for BBC2, Aboriginal Australians met with Masai people to share experiences over land rights. Iâ€™ve also made work about culture and media â€“ Pictures in the Post (BBC2) was a history of the 20th century told through postcards and their messages. Verite Today (BBC2) looked at ideas of truth in British documentary and included interviews with Jean Rouch Nick Broomfield and Richard Leacock. How the West was Lost (Channel 4) looked at Native American representations in Hollywood, and in Navajo Media.
Right now Iâ€™m looking for participants for a web based collaborative project. Within my practice based research Iâ€™m revisiting Jean Rouch and Edgar Morinâ€™s seminal 1960 documentary, Chronicle of a Summer, in particular the question which opens the film, in the classic vox pops sequence, Are you happy? You can see a clip on the site homepage – â€¨http://theareyouhappyproject.org/Iâ€™m seeking collaborators who are interested in getting involved by asking that question on video in their locality. This could be an interesting brief for media studies or documentary students. â€¨If that interests any teachers here I could offer a briefing via Skype, and could put the call to action into context, both of the original film and of the growing field of collaborative online documentary. (I should mention that I have some teaching experience. ) â€¨Thanks for reading. â€¨My email â€“ mandy.rose@uwe.ac.uk

What a fascinating background, Mandy. We did a bunch of collaborative projects here at The D-Word in our first few years, but sadly none since then. A shame since such great potential exists for it within a strong and supportive worldwide community like this. So certainly hope your presence helps inspire some more collaborations.

My name is Jeff Girard. Iâ€™ve been an activist since 2000 primarily in the area of bettering the LGBT community. I started the first visible LGBT group in my hometown in 2003, led it through the end of 2007, and then became employed as a volunteer recruiter and trainer with the NO on 8 campaign in San Francisco and Sacramento. Since 2009, Iâ€™ve been in the east bay.

In late 2009, I bought a program to hook up my VCR to my computer to transfer my home movies to digital format. It came with a simple video editing program and once I started using it my creative side was reinvigorated after having been set aside while I focused on activism. It started to occur to me that I could merge my creativity and activism by making viral videos and films.

I am here seeking collaborators and mentors. Please email me at jeffg4usa@yahoo.com if you would like to collaborate with me or offer a mentorship opportunity in the Sacramento, east bay, or southern CA areas. (Note: I apologize if sharing email is against TOS but I am unable to find whether or not it is)

Weâ€™ve heard a lot about â€œit gets betterâ€ for LGBT folks recently. I hope that promise is not just for teens but for the LGBT folks who endure adversities in their adulthood. Iâ€™ve found it to be a challenge to find mentors in the LGBT community. Maybe I just donâ€™t know the right people. To be clear, I am open to working with people of all walks of life â€“ not just LGBT folks.

I want to continue to do good works as an activist â€“ I just need to make enough to pay for my vehicle and food. My hope is that I can find a mentor who sees the record of good works Iâ€™ve done as an activist to mentor me and help me become even more equipped to do good in the world while being able to take care of myself too.

With all humility, I was the only person in my family to graduate high school and not get into drugs or become an alcoholic. I come from a tough background with no examples of successful people in my family. When I became an adult I had to start working to survive and since then I have avoided student loan debt. I may not be a college educated person, but Iâ€™m certainly an intelligent and creative person. Well, I did take one public speaking class. I got an â€œA.â€

I became unemployed last November and am trying to do all I can to find a place for me to utilize my passion for activism and creativity. Iâ€™m hoping to work on projects and partner with or create a nonprofit to fund my projects. Iâ€™m living in my vehicle by choice and I could not be happier about it. Itâ€™s equipped me to push myself harder to move forward. In case you're wondering, I shower utilizing couch surfing. I'm quite clean and organized considering I live in a vehicle.

Because I am living in my vehicle, for now, I can go anyway. For now, Iâ€™m still in the east bay near San Francisco.

Hello. I've been reading the constructive and generous posts here for a few months- it's time to introduce myself. I work for a weekly documentary show named World Report. The segments aired are a mix of traditional news (with correspondents) and more impressionistic pieces. My specialty is the latter. Here are a few samples:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HDNetWorldReport?ob=0#p/a/u/0/sfeNUaKxufA

Look forward to adding whatever I can to the discussions.
Thanks, David

(Trembling as I type)It's either a post-nervous breakdown, mid-life crisis or a recent trip to India that has me working backwards to becoming a documentary film maker. I was asked to photograph (I'm a classically trained professional photographer making money by doing weddings and freelance work for periodicals)AND "film" for a project dealing with spinal cord injured persons in India last November. With a handycam and digital recorder I "documented" what escip does (look at www.escip.org). I've come back inspired to go back to what I started to do (1st year of college; cinematography major) but didn't complete due to a series of unforeseen events. My goal and agenda at this point to continue bringing social awareness to our generation and inspire the future to also be inspired to film. I would like to teach eventually, how to film in 3rd world countries as a way to heal from pasts that were harmful and painful. I'm at the zenith of my creativity and am ready to share it with the world!!! So, hello and encourage me if you can! NAMASTE

Hi Everyone,
I've known about D-Word for so long that I can't believe I am only now joining. For the past couple of years I've been attending the Stranger than Fiction series at IFC in NY and have loved the little community that has formed around that event so I am hoping to broaden that now on the D-Word. In the past 7 or 8 years I've worked primarily as an editor, but do occasionally direct my own work as well. I look forward to learning from everyone here as well as sharing some of my own experiences from the field. Samples of my work can be found here: www.rachelshuman.comThanks for taking a look!

Thanks, Doug, for the warm welcome! I know...I can't believe how long it's been, but just glad to be here now. It's impressive how much the site has grown; what a wonderful resource and place for community. I hope to see you soon.

I'm completely new to documentary film-making, and was recommended to the D-word as a place to connect with others in the field. Here is a little bit about my background:

I'm currently a M.A. student at The New School studying Political Science. The issues that drive my studies include: economic inequality, poverty, and human rights to name but a few. My plan for about 5 years now was to pursue a career as an academic, addressing these issues through classroom teaching, research, and political activism. Teaching and research are exciting for me, so being a professor seemed like the most logical route for me.

About a year ago however, I began to think about film (specifically documentary) as a medium for researching and communicating the ideas that drive me. Documentary film-making seemed exciting; it provided a new, and seemingly broader, medium to research and communicate with people about my areas of concern. The type of research I have been working on in graduate school has been geared more towards academic crowds – indeed this is the norm, and necessary for career advancement. I've always been interested in communicating with broad audiences though, and above all, that is why I am now turning to documentary film-making. Putting together a real-life account of the lives and experiences of others is REALLY EXCITING for me. I admire those documentary filmmakers who have pulled this feat off with success, and I hope that I can one day do the same.

I should mention that despite my enthusiasm for documentary film-making, I did not pursue it initially. There are several reasons for this. First, I was already so invested in academia. Second, I knew very little about film-making, and did not know anyone personally that was in the film-making profession. Finally, I don't have the funds for film school, and wasn't interested in taking out more student loans to do so.

Despite these obstacles, my desire to pursue documentary has only grown during the past year, to the point where I needed to address it!. About a month ago I finally did, when I set out on my first documentary on subway musicians, which I am currently working on. I'm learning a lot from being on the ground, and have came across some interesting people and resources along the way that have really helped my development. I'm hoping that the D-Word will be another great resource where I can share my experiences, and gather knowledge from other filmmakers. Additionally, I am interested in finding work with documentary film crews, so that I can learn more about the art and draft of documentary film-making (I will post an ad in the classifieds stating that I am looking to find work with documentary crews).

Okay, I'm going to stop now because this introduction is probably entirely too wrong, but thanks for having me here, and I look forward to getting to know all of you!

It's great to join this amazing resource and on-line community. There's not a lot to tell about myself. I studied Television and Film Production for undergrad but took several years off in between and after serving with a non-profit Christian education and development organization in the Philippines. I was able to do some filming while there but my work kept me too busy to do much filmmaking. I've actually travelled to quite a few countries in South America and Asia putting together short videos on the work various church organizations are doing but it's always felt unfulfilling... there was a specific agenda and target audience that I didn't want to be stuck with.

I came back to the states and got married in 2008 and now my wife & I are a traveling production crew. It's been great to work together as a team on various corporate/volunteer projects and we're hoping to branch out into more independent type work that can actually pay the bills... and if not, hopefully the stock footage I sell from some of these projects will help at least!

I kinda took a gamble and used all my money to buy a used Sony EX1 on craigslist and jobs just started coming. I'm still using that EX1 but I've kept reinvesting in equipment as much as possible, learning from my own mistakes, and doing the best I can for each job. I'd love to move towards a DSLR at some point but I'm so heavily invested in my Sony setup that I'm going to work on honing my skills, saving my money, and be comfortable with the equipment I have for a while.

Right now, my wife & I are working on a story of a friend that was a bush pilot in Venezuela that went missing with a plane load of people in a Cessna 182 about 2 years ago. There's an incredible local and international grass roots movement to find the wreckage and get closure for the family. I'm hoping to use the search effort(from scientists at NASA to a private unmanned drone company, satellite images, ground searches through the jungle) as a platform for also examining the kind of person this pilot was: a volunteer pilot with no stipend or salary 100% sustained on donations who saved hundreds of lives flying into ~900 foot runways in remote jungle villages. Ya, it's probably going to have a Christian theme to it because that's who he was and part of the reason he did what he did, but I still believe the human interest aspect of this story could hold someone's attention regardless of their faith or lack of it... I don't want to make another "... and this is why you should be a Christian" film... I want a "do something that matters and die in the saddle" angle... but who knows at this point. If you're interested, www.findingbobnorton.org has some info on the whole search effort.

Well, that's a bit of an introduction. Thanks for having me on The D-Word. I look forward to getting to be a part of this community.

I have heard about this list for a while, but just jump on board. This seems like a great online community resource.

Previously I worked on staff at Show of Force, a NY based non fiction production company and currently I work as the Director of Operations at the new MFA in Social Documentary Film Department at the School of VISUAL ARTS in NY. We have a great group of students and amazing faculty. I look forward to using this site to glean industry knowledge, faculty, guest lecturers and potential students.

My name is Adam Hodgkins. I'm a lecturer in film and visual media at the University of Westminster, London, England where I've been teaching for about 12 years. Previously I've taught at Goldsmiths, Southbank, TVU, Cardiff and Wimbledon Art School (all in the UK). The British Film Institute brought me to London, to study an MA in Cinema Studies, and that city has been my base ever since.

I'm mostly a film theorist/historian, though I do teach on practice-based courses. My areas of specialism are independent and experimental film, distribution and exhibition, and gender, though I teach more broadly. I have no specific specialisation in documentary – though I do spend a substantial proportion of my viewing time seeking them out.

I used to programme an art house cinema in a far flung outpost of progress in the south west of England. This involved organising festivals and events too, something I continued for a while when I got to London.

I am generally frustrated by the lack of serious online discussion around moving image and have spent most forum time on New Music sites since they seem to attract a more thoughtful and thought-provoking enthusiast (fewer casual fans – more committed artists and academics). I've been reliably informed this forum hosts such rigorous debate! So I'm eager, when time allows, to get involved and hopefully stimulate some discussion.

Hello all! My Name is Mika Kiburz. I am a non fiction film and video artist, with a degree in cinema from the University of Iowa. I am currently working on environmental and social issue documentaries, and I just found out about this site from another documentary filmmaker at Sundance Film Festival, this week. Im excited to be a part of this network! I have a great interest in avant garde filmmaking, film theory, and new ways of experiencing cinema. Im looking forward to meeting other film enthusiasts!

Hello,
I'm thrilled to be a part of the D-Word community. Thank you for having me!
A little bit about me... I'm a northern California native, living in Manhattan and I'm attempting to make my first feature documentary. It's been a labor of love (and sometimes rage and hate and frustration) that I started about 3 years ago and I've made my way to the editing room at last. Every day brings new challenges and learning opportunities and I'm eager to be part of a network of others who may be going through/have gone through something similar.
If you have any wisdom to impart, lay it on me :)
I would love to tell you more, but I must get back to editing.
Cheers!
Ashley